In the sausage production by machine, the casing is first fitted onto the stuffing pipe at the machine outlet. Then, the casing brake is positioned at the end of the stuffing pipe.
Casing brakes are used to hold the casing under tension at the filling point, i.e. at the end of the stuffing pipe, when it is stuffed with material (e.g. sausage meat). This is a requirement for the production of well-rounded, high-quality sausages. If the casing can be pulled off the stuffing pipe too easily during the stuffing process, however, a poor filling degree is obtained.
Besides, the casing brake causes a co-rotation of the still unstuffed casing on the stuffing pipe during the twist-off process, while the part of the sausage already stuffed does not co-rotate or is retained, respectively, due to inertia. By this relative movement a twist-off point is produced at the location of the casing brake. That is, the sausage is shaped into portions.
Such a casing brake with a brake rubber, which externally presses the casing onto the stuffing pipe, is already known from EP 0 247 462 and is illustrated, for example, in FIG. 5. The brake rubber 1 forms part of the casing brake. The sealing lip of the brake rubber is directed inwardly to the stuffing pipe. The conical brake rubber is axially strained between two shells 2 and 3. This is usually done by a thread between the shells. By straining the brake rubber over a slope the diameter of the sealing lip can be altered and, thus, the brake power can be adjusted. Due to the high dynamics of the components a variation of the braking prestress caused by inertia should by all means be avoided during the production. Therefore, the adjustment is usually configured to be heavy so that a variation is possible only with difficulties. The adjustment of the braking effect during the production specifically in the driven variant type is therefore not possible, but is accomplished during the machine down time. This leads to an interruption of the production. Thus, the brake power cannot be adapted in an ideal manner. The adjusted brake power has to be checked during the operation and, if necessary, readjusted iteratively, which requires, again, a machine down time. Depending on the configuration, the system maintains the last adjusted braking prestress when the brake is removed from the brake transmission. A disassembly of the brake, e.g. for cleaning the individual components, results in a loss of this last adjusted braking prestress, however. After the assembly, this last adjustment is not restored, but has to be found again during the production by a readjustment in production stops.
Also, casing brakes with a brake rubber are already known, which is mounted on the stuffing pipe and presses outwardly onto the casing. The brake rubber forms here a part of the stuffing pipe and is permanently connected to the same. The sealing lip of the brake rubber is directed towards the outside, with a conically shaped sleeve straining the brake rubber. This solution, too, is disadvantageous because only the preceding brake adjustment is maintained. For example, as soon as a caliber is altered, the adjustment of the previous caliber gets lost. Thus, the brake has to be readjusted with each caliber alteration. The braking prestress is only hard to reproduce. The external lip of the brake rubber on the stuffing pipe can easily get damaged. Moreover, the sealing lip makes it difficult to mount the casing.